Oral Answers to Questions

Justine Greening Excerpts

Wednesday 17th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Simon Hughes (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (LD)]

1. What priorities her Department has in Bangladesh for the next 12 months.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Justine Greening)]

The Department for International Development has three key priorities in Bangladesh between 2011 and 2015: improving the provision of basic services, supporting private sector development and helping to reduce risks to development, including from natural disasters. Over the coming year, DFID will also focus on improving working conditions in the garment sector and supporting free, fair and credible elections.

[Simon Hughes]

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for that answer. Will she add to it by saying what our Government might be able to do to help people in Bangladesh achieve decent basic minimum wages for work and safer working conditions, and to enable poor people to receive the finance they need, either for their families or to start businesses so that they can succeed?

[Justine Greening]

We have a range of programmes to help improve livelihoods. Most recently, when my right hon. Friend the Minister of State visited Bangladesh, he announced an £18 million UK-funded programme to help people, particularly factory workers, to develop skills. We are taking a range of measures. I should add that we also work with international organisations such as the International Labour Organisation to improve workers’ standards and drive workers’ conditions upwards.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

As the Secretary of State may know, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh was in London last week. I discussed with her the high level of diabetes in Bangladesh, which has one of the highest levels of any country in the world. What health projects do we have in Bangladesh specifically to help to reduce diabetes?

[Justine Greening]

I am grateful for the right hon. Gentleman’s question. DFID has health programmes and general programmes to lift people out of poverty, but also to ensure that they have access to services like health care that can help them get on with their day-to-day lives. I will write to him with a fuller update on whether we engage in any direct diabetes-related programmes, which I hope will be helpful to him.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

What is the total size of our aid assistance to Bangladesh and how much of it goes on ameliorating the appalling environmental conditions, given that Bangladesh is situated on the Delta?

[Justine Greening]

The overall programme is about £200 million a year, which is split across a range of activities. Part of it is for basic services like health and education, as I have said; part of it is for economic development; and part of it is to address humanitarian conditions and disaster prevention, readiness and resilience. The final part of the programme is for governance programmes, as I said in my initial answer—these support the Electoral Commission and free and fair elections in Bangladesh—and supporting people so they can access the services and the welfare protection that they deserve.

[Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)]

2. What steps she is taking to improve the co-ordination of humanitarian support for Syria and the surrounding region.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Justine Greening)]

Humanitarian actors are working tirelessly throughout the region, dealing with 1.7 million refugees now outside Syria and 4 million internally displaced people still inside Syria. Improving co-ordination and access is absolutely critical, which is why on 3 July I hosted a meeting with donors and key UN agencies in London to map out some steps on how we continue to up our game. Last week I also visited Lebanon.

[Karen Lumley]

Does the Secretary of State agree that an enormous burden is being placed on the countries that neighbour Syria, and that the international community must help them so that they can be fully supported?

[Justine Greening]

Yes, I do. It is projected that Lebanon, a country with a population of 4 million, will have 1 million refugees by the end of the year. If the same proportion of refugees were to arrive in the UK, the figure would be upwards of 15 million. We need to do everything we can to support not only the refugees but the host communities that they are going into.

[Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)]

The UNICEF ambassador Eddie Izzard recently returned from Syria. He said that

“missing from these discussions are the Syrian children, who are not made of steel, and who are facing desperate and harrowing conditions.”

He specifically drew attention to the lack of education for children there. What conversations has DFID had about providing schooling for children in Syria?

[Justine Greening]

This is something that DFID has particularly focused on. We have given funding directly to UNICEF to support educational facilities—when I was in the Zaatari camp in Jordan, I saw school facilities that had recently been built—and to support counselling. I would like to look more carefully with the United Nations agencies at what we can do to provide trauma counselling for children and their parents, because many of them have gone through awful experiences before ending up in the refugee camps.

[Sir Malcolm Bruce (Gordon) (LD)]

When King Abdullah of Jordan was in London recently, he told us that there was a massive problem with crime, violent assault, rape, prostitution and trafficking involving women who had been displaced by the violence in Syria. What action are we taking to ensure that those women and girls can be protected, because currently they are not?

[Justine Greening]

We do our best work with the UN agencies, which are co-ordinating much of the relief to ensure that the most vulnerable are protected. The right hon. Gentleman will be aware that about 75% of the refugees leaving Syria are women and children, so this is incredibly important. Alongside that work, we clearly need to work in the host communities in places like Jordan to ensure that they are able to cope with this huge influx of people who are placing added pressure on their services, which can often cause tension leading to the kind of trouble that he has mentioned.

[Mr David Crausby (Bolton North East) (Lab)]

The United Nations reports that the refugee crisis in Syria is the worst since that in Rwanda, and that 6,000 people—over half of them children—are fleeing the country every day. What does the Secretary of State intend to do to protect the health and education of those children in what is becoming a catastrophic humanitarian disaster?

[Justine Greening]

The hon. Gentleman is right to point out the comments of António Guterres, who is heading up the refugee operation. As I said earlier, we are particularly focused on what we can do to support the most vulnerable, and that includes children. We are doubling our support to over £300 million in the coming months, and I can assure him that we will put the appropriate amount of that into helping children cope with what is happening to them and ensuring that they are still preparing for the rest of their lives through education.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

14. Britain is leading the way in providing humanitarian relief, but some of our international partners are perhaps doing less well. Given that many refugee camps are still suffering desperate shortages of basic amenities, will the Secretary of State apply more pressure on her international partners and encourage them to step up to the plate?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We played a leading role in galvanising donors at the Kuwait conference earlier this year, and I regularly raise this issue with donors and with the UN. I will continue to do that at the UN General Assembly in September. It is critical that, when countries come to a donor conference and make pledges, they should honour them. It is also critical that the region itself should take steps to ensure that it, too, is playing its full role.

[Ann McKechin (Glasgow North) (Lab)]

The UN emergency relief co-ordinator, Valerie Amos, has highlighted the need for cross-border access for international agencies so they can provide appropriate medical and other help to refugees. What progress has been made in the UN Security Council towards obtaining such access without requiring the consent of the Syrian Government?

[Justine Greening]

The short answer is not nearly enough. Access to Syria is still overly restricted, particularly by the regime, and we are seeing attacks and violence against humanitarian workers and convoys. That is totally unacceptable, and we will continue to raise our concern about it at the highest levels of the UN.

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

3. What support her Department provides for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and if she will make a statement.

--- Later in debate ---

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

4. What plans she has to support the application of agricultural science, research and innovation in developing economies.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Justine Greening)]

DFID is scaling up its agricultural research work in developing countries, particularly programmes that address the slow pace of agricultural innovation in sub-Saharan Africa.

[George Freeman]

I thank the Secretary of State for that answer, and congratulate her on the recent announcement of the £7 million international trade centre and the £57 million trade support package for Kenya and Uganda. Does she agree with me that trade is the best form of aid and that integrating our aid and trade missions, particularly in the field of agricultural technology, is the best way to drive really sustainable development?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend is right, which is why I am very pleased that DFID is a central part of the agri-tech strategy that is shortly to be set out by the Government. It is absolute clear that we have an important role in helping poor countries to improve their agricultural systems and, in doing so, to help develop trade both domestically and internationally.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State also commit to working with the scientific community in this country and abroad to explore the myths on both sides of the argument about the use of genetically modified food and agriculture in developing countries so that the UK can take an evidence-based position?

[Justine Greening]

The hon. Lady will know that ultimately it is up to each individual country to work out how it wants to deal with the issue of GM foods. She will have been pleased to see that at the recent G8 event on nutrition, science and accessing scientific experts was a key part of our nutrition push over the coming months and years.

[Oliver Colvile (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Con)]

5. What steps her Department takes to reduce the impact of natural disasters by increasing the resilience of communities.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Justine Greening)]

I am ramping up my Department’s economic development efforts to ensure that we adopt a more systematic and structured approach in order to unlock more trade and investment. That includes embarking on a new relationship with the CBI, meeting representatives of the extractive industries and engineering companies, and starting to work with United Kingdom retailers to drive up standards.

[Andrew Jones]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that poverty can only be reduced in the long run through economic development, and that DFID can play a major role in helping companies to grow and get people into work so that they can raise their own tax revenues to fund their own services?

[Justine Greening]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. United Kingdom companies also have a key role to play, and companies in his own constituency, such as Taylors of Harrogate, demonstrate how that can be done.

[Simon Wright (Norwich South) (LD)]

T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for International Development (Justine Greening)]

Last week, I visited Lebanon, where I announced that the UK will allocate a further £50 million to help Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Lebanese people in host communities. I also visited Tanzania and Pakistan, and hosted donors and United Nations agencies in London to map out steps on aid co-ordination. Following my visit to Rwanda last month, I would like to inform the House that although the latest assessment of the partnership principles has shown some welcome progress, our overall assessment remains that it is not right to release general budget support, and we will re-programme the payment of £16 million to support specific education and poverty alleviation programmes.

[Simon Wright]

In 2010, the UK provided much-needed help to the people of Haiti following the outbreak of cholera. However, an NGO has recently raised concerns that five of the seven recommendations of a UN report on the epidemic have been either only partially implemented or not implemented at all. Will the Secretary of State urgently investigate those concerns?

[Justine Greening]

I had the chance to visit Haiti earlier this year, and I understand my hon. Friend’s concerns. The report he is talking about has not yet been formally endorsed by the UN or peer-reviewed, but I can assure him that the UK’s contribution to tackling cholera in Haiti has been substantial since 2010. We have provided support for more than 1.3 million people.

[Mr Ivan Lewis (Bury South) (Lab)]

Members on both sides of the House will be extremely concerned at the latest outbreak of violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The DRC needs better political leadership, and an army and police force worthy of the name. It also requires the Secretary of State to provide effective leadership, so will she confirm to the House that UK budget support will be reinstated to the Government of Rwanda only if they cease all support for the M23 and militia activities in eastern DRC?

[Justine Greening]

The hon. Gentleman obviously was not listening to my opening statement in topical questions, so I refer him back to that.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

T3. What indications has my right hon. Friend received from fellow G8 development Ministers that they will also meet their commitments on providing 0.7% of gross national income, given that the money is also needed to maintain the impressive gains made in tackling the scourges of maternal and child mortality?

[Justine Greening]

I pay tribute to some Scandinavian countries that have also reached the 0.7%—indeed, they have exceeded it. I regularly raise this issue with other EU development Ministers and with other donor countries.

[Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab)]

T2. HIV/AIDS is a devastating illness affecting 34 million people worldwide, 69% of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa. This week, the White House published its HIV/AIDS strategy, so when will the Government commit to publishing one for the UK?

[Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con)]

T6. The Secretary of State will be aware that there is a new Government in Pakistan. Will she update the House on how she plans to co-operate with and support Pakistan to bring stability to the region?

[Justine Greening]

I was in Pakistan last week, when I had the chance to meet senior members of the Government and at the provincial level. We will be—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The Secretary of State is answering questions on extremely important matters, which have an impact on some of the most vulnerable people on the face of the planet. We ought to do her and the House a service by preserving some calm.

[Justine Greening]

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. We will continue to work with the new Government on stability in border areas. I am sure the House will be delighted to hear that I agreed a tax package with Pakistan’s Government that will see Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs going in to help them broaden their tax base and improve their tax collection.

[Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab)]

T4. Will the Secretary of State tell the House what assurances the Burmese President has given the UK about respect for human rights in Burma, and, specifically, the treatment of Rohingya community, during his recent visit to Britain?

[Justine Greening]

I had a chance to meet the Burmese President earlier this week, when I did raise those issues, particularly the importance of access for humanitarian support. I hope I managed to get his assurances that the Burmese Government will work with us as we try to improve the lot of those people and will play a leadership role in reducing ethnic tensions.

[Mr Speaker]

I might tell the hon. Gentleman that I met the President here yesterday and I conveyed some of those messages on behalf of colleagues.

--- Later in debate ---

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

T5. In a Westminster Hall debate on 4 July, the Minister of State, who has just left the Front Bench, said that he would take on board my concerns about workers in debt bondage in Pakistan. Will he undertake to get the DFID office in Pakistan to write a plan of action over the summer and then to make a written statement when the House comes back in September?

[Justine Greening]

I am sure that I can speak on my right hon. Friend’s behalf by assuring the hon. Gentleman that we will follow up his comments in that Westminster Hall debate. We have a close working relationship with the new Pakistan Government and it will involve improving the lot of workers.

The Prime Minister was asked—